QUEENSLAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1824, 25 April 1888, Page 2

QUEENSLAND.

Bbisbanb, April 24. Four navvies going down a shaft to the tunnel on Fortitude Valley (Brisbane) Railway dropped a lighted candle, which exploded 251 bof powder and some dynamite detonators lying at the bottom. The men were nearly blown out of the shaft and fell to the bottom dreadfully wounded, They were at once rescued, and are still alive. The police who were despatched to Mount Merlin station, Clanowong, to inquire into the reported murder of a white boy and four blacks by the manager of the station, have returned, and report, that the rumor is entirely without foundation, and that its origination was the outcome of spite by a boy engaged on the station.

Captain Hutter, of the German steamer Otilie, while on the voyage from Finschaven, New Guinea, to Cooktown, jumped overboard while m a state of high fever, and was drowned. The expedition have returned from Finschaven, and they report that they have discovered what are believed to be traces of the explorers Von Bulow and Heinstein and servant. The spot where the articles were found appear? to have been the scene of an eruption, and it is believed that the party were engulfed.

The action of the miners on the Croydon goldfields having ejected all Chinese, except those holding business licenses, has caused a great deal of inconvenience, as no Chinese cooks are now available on the field, and all the Chinese gardeners have abandoned their vegetable gardens.